Tips, tactics and strategies to help you have a Perfect Workday AND a lighter heart.

Friday, July 22, 2016

I DARE YOU TO READ THIS BLOG!!!!

Ha! Gotcha to read! This is a little longer than usual, but hang with it....

Considering some of the challenges I’m running into in life right now I’ve been thinking about this quote:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

The quote is often attributed to Plato. (no, kids, not the planet…that would be Pluto…well, it used to be a planet and then a bunch of pointy-headed scientists said, “Noooooo…”….it’s really a…mmm…sorry, I digressed)

Anyway, Plato was a Greek philosopher.

Others credit Philo of Alexandria with…(Dang! Will you kids at the back of class calm the hell down!! No! That’s not Philo Bedow, the character Clint Eastwood played in Any Which Way But Loose…and yes, Sondra Locke was pretty hot in that, and the orangutan knocked out the bad guy and…whew! sorry! go off on a tangent again.)

Sooooo, the quote was probably created in the 19th Century by Ian McLaren, the pen name of Reverend John Watson, a noted clergyman.

But, here’s the interesting thing (and yes, if you’ll hang with me I’m going to make a point)….here’s Watson’s whole explanation…read it through TWICE and then I’m going to give you two very different ways to think about the quote:

“This man beside us also has a hard fight with an unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched. It is a fact, however surprising. And when this occurs to us we are moved to deal kindly with him, to bid him be of good cheer, to let him understand that we are also fighting a battle; we are bound not to irritate him, nor press hardly upon him nor help his lower self.”

Here’s the first point: What if we looked at each other at work and remembered the quote?

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

You know that person who gets on your last nerve at work? What if they are having health issues, personal/family problems? Financial worries? Spiritual issues?

Would you cut’em some slack if you knew that? Would you—and me—understand, “I’m running into issues just like they are?” Wouldn’t that bring you a little closer to each other?

And, yes, I get the automatic reaction of, “I don’t want to be closer to them?!!” I get ya, but the farther away we get from each other the worse life gets for all.

Which brings me to the second point. What if we remembered the quote:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

And we remembered it during the election season/process? You know those folks who are adamantly for Trump and opposed/loathe Hillary, or are sure it’s Hillary and stunned/disgusted by Trump? What are their lives like? What experiences are pushing them to make the decisions/statements they do?

The farther away we are, the worse life gets for all.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a couple of things in life that seem to keep me constantly girded for battle. Increasingly, I’m trying to remember the quote;

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

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Mike Collins is president of The Perfect Workday Company, an information company based in The Research Triangle Region of North Carolina. He presents 100+ programs a year for organizations such as IBM, American Express, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals and The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Center.